[Videos] Ford to start a 10-year revamp process of its Dearborn headquarters

Ford has a very modern vision of how its Michigan headquarters campus should look like and it plans to make it real by starting this year an extensive 10-year transformation project.

Ford announced this week plans to transform its Dearborn facilities into a modern, green and high-tech campus, a 10-year transformation process of the company’s more than 60-year-old headquarters and research site. The project will involve moving about 30,000 employees from 70 buildings today into primarily two locations, a product campus and a world headquarters one, a plan which will see more than 7.5 million square feet of work space to be rebuilt and upgraded.

The product campus will include a new design center, autonomous vehicles, on-demand shuttles, eBikes, new onsite employee services, wireless connectivity speeds up to 10 times faster than today and more green spaces, Ford promises. The second site, around the current Ford World Headquarters building, will feature a new Ford Credit facility and provide onsite employee services and improved connectivity.

Construction of the new product campus is set to start this month at the Ford Research and Engineering Center and the work is expected to be completed by 2023. The transformation of the second one Ford World Headquarters is scheduled to begin in 2021 and is expected to be ready in 2026.

“As we transition to an auto and a mobility company, we’re investing in our people and the tools they use to deliver our vision,” Ford President and CEO Mark Fields said. “Bringing our teams together in an open, collaborative environment will make our employees’ lives better, speed decision-making and deliver results for both our core and emerging businesses.”